AN ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK. 



That puts me in mind of an adventure I had some years ago off the 

 Fhorida coast, remarked Wm. Hill, the watch man at Chicago, who "pays 

 the express." My principal object in visiting Florida was to enjoy the tar- 

 pon fishing, but incidentally I found much excitement in another direction. 

 Sharks were exceedingly plentiful, and I finally concluded to vary the rec- 

 reation of tarpon fishing with a cruise after these cruel sea pirates. Pro- 

 vided with strong tackle and a capable boatman, I anchored my skiff near 

 the inlet where quite a number of sharks could be seen daily, frisking about 

 in the surf, ready to battle with man or fish. My previous experience had 

 especially fitted me for an encounter of this kind. During fifteen years of 

 my life I had been an active speculator, and was thus brought into daily 

 contact with the worst variety of land sharks, and I knew the sea sharks 

 could not equal them in craft or cruelty. In my experience with land 

 sharks it was not an uncommon thing to see one of them swallow a whole 

 railway line and a million acre land grant without change of countenance. 



But to return to my story. After catching a few comparatively small 

 specimens I was beginning to long for something more exciting, when sud- 

 denly a monster shark was seen a short distance away, apparently in just 

 the mood for war. He swallowed the bait, and the strong line went spin- 

 ning into the depths with a rapidity which could not be checked. This 

 could not last long. The line had nearly run off the windlass, which served 

 the purpose of a reel, at the end of the boat. It finally broke off short, 

 capsizing the boat and throwing myself and assistant into the water. I at 

 once seized the vanishnig end of the rope, and, strange as it may appear, 

 swam to the shore, drawing the shark after me and landed him safely on 

 the beach, where, upon measurement, he was found to be twenty feet in 

 length. Since that time I have never been afraid to cope, single-handed, 

 with the largest of the species to be found in the ocean, but have found 

 the land sharks more difficult and dangerous to handle. 



A RARE CATCH. 



" Well," remarked Mr. Draper, of Geo. P. Rowell's Agency, " Mr. 

 Fred Ringer, of our agency, and I took a day off last season and went 

 down to Geneva lake for a quiet fish. We obtained a boat and rowed out 

 to the middle of the lake and made ready for business. Putting on a live 

 frog Mr. Ringer made one of his famous long distance casts. A gull see- 



